


Haunted History

by Cornerofmadness



Series: Vacation [3]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24591436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: The Arroyos and Malcolm are on a ‘family’ vacation together but there are ghosts they have to contend with.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo/Jackie Arroyo
Series: Vacation [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768588
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020





	Haunted History

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Not mine, Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver owns it
> 
> **Notes:** Written for 3AM_moonlight for the prompt Any, any, take my hand." It also fulfills the Get Your Words Out Yahtzee prompt of a man and a full moon picture prompt and the allbingo prompt of lighthouse. While this is part of a series, they're all stand alone. All you need to know is the Arroyos are taking Malcolm on their first vacation together.

“Come on, Gil, Jackie! Walk faster!” Malcolm ordered, walking backwards so he could give his guardians the evil eye.

“Those tunnels have been there for more than two hundred years, kiddo. They’re not going anywhere,” Gil shot back, contemplating his sanity at this point. How could anyone who slept as badly as Malcolm did, have this much energy?

“There could be ghosts!” Malcolm replied, remembering what their Fort Adams tour guide had said when they had first gone on a guided tour before striking out on their own to revisit some of it. All three of them loved history, and Malcolm had been completely taken with the idea of soldiers being stationed in the tunnels in the dark listening for anyone digging into the fort. Gil was amused by the idea that Malcolm thought he could sit quietly for eight hours. He couldn’t make eight minutes.

“Can you imagine explaining to Jess that ghosts got him?” Jackie whispered in his ear.

Gil slipped an arm around his wife, snickering. Just then his phone rang, Jess probably turning in for the night in Paris. “Hello Jess.”

“Still alive. I’m shocked. Have you accidentally lost my son yet?” she teased.

“He’s about to go into some sketchy tunnels in a dilapidated fort in Newport so maybe? Want to talk to him one last time?”

“Of course. Sorry yet about turning down the valiums?”

“No. Malcolm.” He held out his phone. Malcolm raced back across the fort grounds, rolling his eyes but he spoke to his mother, hustling her off the phone fast so he could get back into the tunnels to take more pictures. 

It took a bit of doing to get Malcolm out of Fort Adams. He had been very taken with it. Lunch impressed him less but once they got him on the cliff walk, he opened back up.

“You know what poison ivy looks like, right, Malcolm?” Jackie asked. Gil wondered what it looked like himself.

“Leaves of three, let it be,” Malcolm replied. “Mom never wants to walk the cliffs when we’re here. Dad took me once.” He paused at that, his lower lip suddenly wibbling. 

“I’m sorry.” Gil rubbed Malcolm’s back. “Do you want to do this? It’s okay if you don’t.”

“I want to. I want to show Jackie how cool it is!” He put on a brave face but they knew he was hurting. Gil knew he should have asked Jessica more questions about things Malcolm did with his father.

Malcolm did well, however, as they did the Forty Steps to Ruggles Ave route. Jackie was as excited to see some of the mansions and the outstanding campus of Salve University as Gil had been to see the fort. Malcolm jogged ahead of them.

“Watch yourself,” Gil called, looking at the drop from the path to the sea.

“Here! Look!” Malcolm pointed excitedly. He and Jackie caught up with him. “That’s our summer cottage.”

Jackie’s eyes went wide, grabbing Gil’s arm. “Look at that!”

The mansion reminded Gil of something Jessica had told him two years before. _We’re from different worlds_. She’d been right. Malcolm promised to bring them there some day. Gil herded him back to the car. He stowed it in a parking garage and they took a ferry to Rose Island. Malcolm nearly bounced himself into the ocean when Gil told him they’d be sleeping in the lighthouse.

***  
A fat full moon hung overhead, adding to the light of their campfire. Malcolm had been ecstatic to explore the lighthouse, climbing right up to the lens and surveying the harbor from his sky-high position. The Revolutionary war barracks fascinated him too. He played on the beach for hours before insisting on a campfire. 

Gil had his hands high overhead, framing the moon, illustrating his story about the young girl who haunted the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, just like his mother had told him the story. Malcolm had insisted on ghost stories for the campfire, and it wasn’t like he was going to sleep worse. Malcolm watched him spellbound. He had brought that same intensity to picking shells with Jackie on the pebbly beach around the lighthouse.

“There are no ghosts, are there?” He asked when Gil finished his story. 

“You’re the one who thought the fort could be haunted,” Gil reminded him.

“Might be cool…might be scary.” Malcolm pushed another marshmallow on a stick and jammed it in the fire. He’d already eaten enough to jitter all night long. “But sleeping in the lighthouse is gonna be really neat. Ains will be _jealous_.” He beamed as his marshmallow caught fire.

Jackie blew it out for him. Malcolm gingerly pulled it off the stick and stuffed it whole into his mouth. “I heard the barracks are haunted too.” She pointed to the remains of the old fort. “Want to go ghost hunting?”

Malcolm leaped up, nearly spearing himself with the marshmallow stick. “Yes. Can we Gil?”

“Let me get a flashlight.” He ran into the lighthouse and got one the caretaker had in the restored kitchen. By the time he got back outside, he could tell Malcolm was already having second thoughts. “You sure you’re up to ghost hunting.”

Malcolm nodded, a ferocious expression on his face. Jackie held out her hand, wiggling her fingers. 

“Take my hand. If the ghost gets you, it has to take me too.”

Malcolm grabbed on, and Gil took her other hand. He led them away from the lighthouse. The excitement on Malcolm’s face made it worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: All the places mentioned in the story are real (barring the Milton summer cottage but you just know old money like them has one!) You can visit the places here if you’d like. You _can_ sleep at the Lighthouse. However, I’m not sure you could in 2000 when this takes place. Ah well it’s fiction for a reason.  
> [ Rose Island Lighthouse](https://roseisland.org/index.php/rose-island-history/)  
> [ Fort Adams](https://fortadams.org/)  
> [ Cliff Walk](http://www.cliffwalk.com/)


End file.
